Have to say, this thread is a fair bit overdue! I think the NZ thing did come up briefly in the other thread, but wasn't really on-topic. That speech was amazing. Congratulations NZ on entering the 21st century!

The Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill 2013 is still winding its way through the report stage in Parliament. It needs to get through the Lords too - by no means certain. Even if the old bastards can muster the votes, it may be filibustered into oblivion. There again, filibustering it might just kill off that glorified old folk's home for good.

There are still seven nations - Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Nigeria, and Mauritania - in which being gay or bisexual is a capital crime, because it offends an invisible man who lives in the sky.

The Handle, the British politics thread is where to go if you'd like more info on the House of Lords. Suffice to say, they do need to approve our gay marriage bill, and they could refuse. Not sure that they would, though.

Handel, getting knighted is not the same thing as being made a lord. Check out the Knight Fever page. But the long and short of it is this, all bills do have to pass thought the Lords, but if the refuse it and the Commons just passes it again and again they can't refuse it a third time. Currently the UK bill is stuck between the Committee and Report stages. I can't find any estimates online for how long a bill normally stays like that, so things are rather in limbo at the moment.

Also yes being made a lord is normally a kiss of death, because you can't stop being a lord, and pretty much everything interesting happens in the Commons.

"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael

"If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran

Well, some of them were. But they're all disavowed by the main group, which also claims not to be homophobic (which might not be *completely* false, I've theorized in the other thread that the "mother and father" argument may be sexist instead).

edited 19th Apr '13 11:51:14 PM by Medinoc

Grandma, what big teeth you have! It would be a shame if anything happened to them.

Link: I have just come to the realization that the argument that "A child needs a father and a mother" is not so much homophobic as it is sexist: It actually means "A child needs a traditional male stereotype and a traditional female stereotype".

Meh. I think you are underplaying the role of actual biology difference between the sexes there buddy. I don't find the statement "a child needs a father and a mother" that outrageous myself.

Seriously there's tendency for man and women to 'naturally' take a different tact when rising children. Being female or male gives you a different perspective of life and a understanding of your sex that persons of the opposite gender do not. To say otherwise would be ignoring the lessons of gender privilege.

I'm of the opinion that this gender balance of role models is important to a child's social development. It is not to say that a child can't 'get by' with a single sex parents. Just that their natural development is going to be disadvantaged.

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